Astronauts
Jim Reilly (center frame) and John "Danny" Olivas (out of frame),
both STS-117 mission specialists, participate in the mission's first planned
session of extravehicular activity (EVA), as construction resumes on the
International Space Station.
In a 6
hour, 15 minute spacewalk, shuttle astronauts Jim Reilly and Danny Olivas
attached the S3/S4 Truss, and completed attachment of bolts, cables, and
connectors to begin the activation of the truss and ready it for deployment of
its solar arrays.
The
spacewalk was delayed for about an hour after the station temporarily lost
attitude control, when the station's control moment gyroscopes went offline due
to the mass of the new truss segment. The loss was not unexpected because of
the station's skewed asymmetry as the 17.8 ton bus-sized S3/S4 truss was being
moved toward the S1 truss.
Pilot Lee
Archambault, Mission Specialist Patrick Forrester and Expedition 15 Flight
Engineer Oleg Kotov, onboard, earlier remotely tightened the final of four
bolts permanently mating the new 45-foot truss to the outboard end of the S1
truss. The installation paved the way for the start of the spacewalk – the
fourth for Reilly and first for Olivas. Once completed, the truss will stretch
356 feet.
Once the
spacewalk began, Reilly and Olivas moved quickly through their tasks of
releasing the launch restraints on the four Solar Array Blanket Boxes, which
house the folded solar arrays.
--NASA and SPACE.com Staff
Credit: NASA
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